Wādī Ḥalfā ( ar, وادي حلفا) is a city in the

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

state of

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

on the shores of Lake Nubia near the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

with

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. It is the terminus of a rail line from

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferries going down the lake. As of 2007, the city had a population of 15,725. The city is located amidst numerous ancient

Nubia Nubia () ( Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sud ...

n antiquities and was the focus of much archaeological work by teams seeking to save artifacts from the flooding caused by the completion of the

Aswan Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan ...

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that settlement has been in the area since ancient times, and during the Middle Kingdom period, the Egyptian colony of Buhen across the river existed until the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. The modern town of Wadi Halfa was founded in the 19th century, when it became a port on the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

for steamers from Aswan, such as the ''

''. During the Turko-Egyptian conquest of 1820, Wadi Halfa was used as a stopping point for troops headed south. Communications developed in the latter half of the 19th century, with a telegraph line to Egypt connected in 1866 and ill-fated attempts to build a railway to

Kerma Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was located in present-day Sudan at least 5,500 years ago. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, ...

in 1873 and 1877.Budge, Ernest A.W. ''The Egyptian Sudan: Its History and Monuments'', Vol. II
pp. 461 ff
1907 reprinted by Cosimo Classics (New York), 2010. Accessed 13 Feb 2014. The eventual establishment of the Sudanese rail head at Wadi Halfaconnected via steamer to the Egyptian network via a port just south of Asyutcaused the site to eclipse the former caravan site at Korosko. General Kitchener and the Anglo-egyptian Nile Campaign, 1898 HU93870

General Kitchener and the Anglo-egyptian Nile Campaign, 1898 HU93870

In 1885, Wadi Halfa entered a period of turmoil after falling under the

Mahdist War The Mahdist War ( ar, الثورة المهدية, ath-Thawra al-Mahdiyya; 1881–1899) was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam (the "Guided On ...

regime. Conflicts frequently broke out on the border, and in 1889, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi's army entered the town on the way to the Battle of Tushki. Wadi Halfa was briefly the headquarters of the British-led

ian and British forces under Kitchener seeking to defeat the forces of

Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad ( ar, محمد أحمد ابن عبد الله; 12 August 1844 – 22 June 1885) was a Nubian Sufi religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, as a youth, studied Sunni Islam. In 1881, he claimed to be the Mahdi, ...

, the

Mahdi The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a descendant of Muhammad w ...

proclaimed by his disciples, from 1881 to 1885. The rail line up the Nile was originally begun in 1897 to support this military buildup; it extends, via Atbara, to

El Obeid El-Obeid ( ar, الأبيض, ''al-ʾAbyaḍ'', lit."the White"), also romanized as Al-Ubayyid, is the capital of the state of North Kurdufan, in Sudan. History and overview El-Obeid was founded by the pashas of Ottoman Egypt in 1821. It was ...

and beyond into southern and western Sudan. Sudan Wadi Halfa RR Hotel From Garden 1936

A river monitoring station functioned in Wadi Halfa between 1911 and 1931, to monitor changes associated with the Aswan reservoir, but from 1931 to 1962 it was moved to Kajnarty, 47 kilometres to the north of the town. A railroad hotel was built in the town during the 20th century, and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Wadi Halfa was a communications post for Allied forces in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. By 1956, the town had grown to a population of 11,000. On 8 November 1959, the signing of the Sudanese-UAR Nile Water Agreement brought the area into much debate, given that the agreement to flood the area upon the creation of the

would directly affect some 52,000 people in the area who would have to be resettled over a four-year period from 1960. Worst affected were the Nubians who demonstrated in Wadi Halfa on 23–24 October 1960 against being resettled, and on 26 October demonstrations took place in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, which had to be dispersed by police using tear gas. The government was quick to suppress the agitation, placing Wadi Halfa under martial law and terminating communications with the rest of the country. Protests in Khartoum, mainly by students, led to the temporary closure of the Khartoum campus of Cairo University and about 50 arrests. The old town was completely destroyed after the construction of the Aswan High Dam due to flooding in 1964. Most of the town was relocated, and by 1965 the population of

New Halfa New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

was just 3,200. During the 1970s, the area was under intense scrutiny by archaeologists working to protect ancient Nubian monuments. Wadi Halfa was featured in part four, entitled "Shifting Sands", of the eight part Michael Palin television documentary series '' Pole to Pole'' released by the BBC in 1992. In 2005 a museum and interactive Nubian village were planned for Wadi Halfa but by 2014 nothing had been done.

Climate

Wadi Halfa has a hot desert climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BWh'') typical of the

Nubian Desert The Nubian Desert ( ar, صحراء النوبة, ''Şaḩrā’ an Nūbyah'') is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 400,000 km2 of northeastern Sudan and northern Eritrea, between the Nile and the Red Sea ...

. Wadi Halfa receives each year the highest mean amount of bright sunshine, with an extreme value of 4,300 h which is equal to 97–98 % of possible sunshine. In addition to this, the town receives a mean annual amount of rainfall of 0.5 mm and many years usually pass without any rainfall falling on the ground. Wadi Halfa experiences long, hot summers and short, warm winters. The annual mean temperature is about 27 °C. From May to September, inclusively, the averages highs exceed 40 °C. The annual mean rate of potential evaporation is also among the highest found throughout the world, with as much as 5,930 mm.

Economy

Agriculture plays an important role in local economy. The Chinese have invested in a fish processing plant in the town.

History

Climate

Economy

References

Further reading